In Per-Pupil Spending, Connecticut Ranks High

Connecticut is among the states that spent the most on instruction for children in elementary and secondary school in FY2013.

Census data released Tuesday shows that Connecticut's spending per pupil of $10,285 on instruction trailed only New York State and the District of Columbia.

The national average was $6,480.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/govs/school/

Connecticut ranked high in administrative costs, as well: its spending on general administration was the seventh-highest of all states, and its spending on school administration, at $985 per pupil, was the third-highest.

Among Connecticut's school districts, many rural districts in the western portion of the state had the highest per-pupil spending totals for instruction.

At the top of the list is the Canaan town school district, where more than $20,200 was spent per pupil on instruction in 2013, according to the census data. Other districts with high per-pupil expenditures were the Cornwall consolidated district, the Redding town district, the Sharon town district, Regional District 1 in the far northwest and Regional District 12, centered in Washington Depot in Litchfield County.

Greenwich, which spent $14,387 per pupil, was ranked No. 7.

Administrative costs were high in many of those same rural districts. The Canaan district spent $2,747 per student on school administration costs, the data show. Cornwall, Bloomfield, Norfolk, Regional District 11 in rural eastern Connecticut, Sharon and Hampton districts also ranked high.